This invention relates to audible and visual alarm systems that are used to monitor the status of a person in another room for a variety of reasons to know when assistance or attention may be needed.
A caregiver's dilemma is that he or she is often tethered to a very small area and close range due to the constant demands of the one for whom they are caring. If the caregiver has to leave the room of the one for whom they are caring for a brief or extended period of time, they often become extremely anxious and worrisome about the individual trying to get off the bed without assistance or needing some other kind of assistance. There are numerous examples where an alarm device would be beneficial.
The first typical example for the need to monitor the status of a person in another room is that of an elderly person. Elderly people are usually insistent on remaining independent when it comes to personal care issues and consequently, this often places them at risk. Elderly people are often too frail to get up and out of bed without assistance. Getting out of bed without assistance can result in serious injury to them--perhaps, a broken hip or becoming entangled in a bedside rail. Elderly people very often have to get up several times during the night thereby depriving the caregiver of necessary rest.
A second example involves Alzheimer patients who require close monitoring. Alzheimer patients tend to wander out of bed and sometimes unknowingly even leave the premises. Other family members often do not know that the individual has gotten out of bed until after they have left home and become missing.
A third example involves individuals who sleep walk. Other family members are sometimes unaware that their sleepwalker has gotten out of bed and perhaps has left the premises and placed themselves in extreme danger.
Caregivers have difficulty relaxing or sleeping, as they are aware of dangers posed by the three (3) examples above. There are presently no alarm devices that adequately alert caregivers to the needs of such individuals and the potential dangers they experience from such activity.
Currently, patient call cord systems with buttons or switches are available in nursing homes, hospitals, and some residential care facilities. Call cords are not effective to monitor the three examples listed above. The reason traditional call cords are not effective in these cases is because the systems require one, to a large degree, to be coherent, alert, and able to contemplate and enunciate his or her need for assistance. This system can be effectively utilized parallel to the traditional call systems in nursing homes, hospitals, and residential care facilities to rectify this unmet monitoring need.
Unlike traditional call systems, this invention automatically alerts the caregiver by audible and visual alarm signals when the patient being monitored attempts to leave the bed, chair or other location where he or she may be situated. Additionally, the individual being monitored can consciously summons assistance by simply pulling on the alarm's connecting apparatus.
Institutional type call systems are not normally available in private homes and even if these type systems were available, it would not meet the needs described herein.